


i can feel you across the stars

by solohux



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (No Underage), Alternate Universe - Ben Solo Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Kidnapping, M/M, Mutual Pining, Young Love, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 20:24:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19410730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solohux/pseuds/solohux
Summary: Ben gets stolen away by the First Order against his will. In his cell, he thinks of Poe.





	i can feel you across the stars

“ _Hey, sleeping beauty. Hey, shhh. C’mon. We need to head back. Your Uncle will be wondering where you’ve got to.”_

_Ben smiles as he emerges into wakefulness, woken by the gentle sounds of Poe’s voice and the feeling of his familiar hand stroking through his hair. He opens his eyes slowly, expecting to be blinded by the bright Yavin IV sunshine that he fell asleep in but it’s almost dark, the sun barely shining through the gracefully lush canopy of the forest. The sounds of birds fade into the distance as they nestle in for the evening though the creek that he and Poe have napped beside still flows with a peaceful trickling sound._

_“Ten more minutes,” Ben mutters, snuggling back down into the soft blanket that’s spread out underneath them. “Just…not yet.”_

_He looks to Poe, beside him, and finds himself unable to close his eyes. In the warm orange glow of the sunset, Poe looks more handsome than Ben has ever seen him. His honey-coloured eyes hold so much emotion that Ben feels it radiating from him through the Force, coming through in drips and drabs but there, nonetheless, unmistakably love._

_“I’m not getting into trouble with Luke for making you late to meditation again,” Poe laughs, smiling, and Ben can’t help but smile in return at the sight._

_“I don’t want to leave,” Ben says, suddenly feeling sad. “Something...Something feels so right about this.”_

_“About us?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“I know,” Poe leans in, kissing the tip of Ben’s nose. “I…”_

_“I love you,” Ben can’t help it. He’s said those words before he can bite his tongue and remind himself that they’re still teenagers, still under the laws of their parents. Poe is his best friend, and Ben is certain that those three little words have just lost him forever—_

_“I know that, too,” Poe replies. His hand cups Ben’s cheek, brushing over his freckles. “I love you more, Ben Solo. More than you’ll ever know.”_

Poe’s words echo inside of Ben’s mind as he wakes from his dream, certain that he can still feel his hand on his cheek and the soft blanket beneath him, the gentle flow of the Temple’s creek. And for a moment, he allows himself to smile, opening his eyes whilst expecting to see Poe lying beside him, but instead, is greeted by the four walls of his holding cell.

He isn’t sure which star destroyer he’s on anymore: he’s been drugged and moved around so many times that he’s lost track of the First Order’s ships. The Force-suppression collar around his neck, too, means that he’s out of touch with everything he’s ever known. Even from a young age, Ben has been able to latch onto the minds of the ones he loves—he recalls how his mother talked about how she felt him before he was even born—and communicate with them, even across massive distances from one side of the galaxy to the other. For years, Ben found comfort in Poe’s mind; so calming and happy. It became a reflex to reach out to him when he felt troubled, and Poe welcomed it, but now everything is silent, drowned out by the collar around his neck.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” comes the familiar cold, clipped tone of General Hux as he enters the heavy, sliding door of Ben’s cell; the four grey walls, his bed, a table & chair, a datapad that’s filled with blocks and censors, limiting his browsing. “It’s moving day.”

“ _What?”_ Ben is shocked; he hasn’t been in this cell for very long, a few weeks, maybe. For the first year of his capture, he was in the same cell, never moved. Yet, over the last three years, he’s been moved countless times. Maybe the Resistance are close to finding him, maybe Poe is—

“The Supreme Leader requests your presence. It is, after all, your twentieth birthday today.”

Birthday? Ben had forgotten all about his birthdays. He can’t track the days, after all, and the months have all blurred whilst in captivity. His thoughts about how he spent his last birthday with his padawan comrades, his family and his precious Poe don’t stay in his mind for long, however, too troubled by the fact that Snoke wants to see him. He’s seen the _Supreme Leader_ only thrice before; one upon his capture, the second after one of Hux’s intense interrogation sessions, and the third—

Ben feels bile come into his mouth. Since the beginning, Snoke had made it clear that he would go to any length to get the grandson of Darth Vader on his side, kneeling at his feet in the role of his attack dog, his apprentice. On every occasion, Ben has denied, spitting at the vile Leader, promising that he will finish what Anakin started; eliminating the creatures that lurk in the darkness. The coming pain had been unbearable; Force lightning, an assault on his mind that felt as though every one of his happy memories was being poisoned, especially the ones so emotionally charged, the ones of Poe.

“I’ll never join him,” Ben says, growling. He stands up from his cot, matching Hux’s height, his grey scrubs mirrored by the General’s dark uniform. “Or _you._ Any of you.”

Hux’s stern demeanour doesn’t falter. His gaze burrows into Ben’s skull as though trying to intimidate but it fails; Ben, like his mother before him, would never be intimidated by small Imperials in uniform.

“We’ll see, Solo,” Hux smirks, setting a hand on Ben’s cheek, grazing his gloved thumb across the fading freckles on Ben’s pale cheeks. “ _We’ll see._ ”

Ben jerks his cheek away, scowling. He wants to rip Hux’s arm from its socket, punch and kick him until he’s taking back everything he’s ever said and done to hurt Ben—but Ben sits down on his bunk, breathing deeply and thinking of the calm that he once found in Poe’s mind. Despite not being able to feel it, he _remembers_ how it felt to be so connected to someone who meant so much to him, and it centres him.

_“I love you more, Ben Solo. More than you’ll ever know.”_

Ben sighs, shuddering as the colourless gas begins to floor his cell to knock him out, make him pliant and fightless for his transport to Snoke. He lies down, sending his mind back to his dream, to the memory of waking up beside the creek, beside Poe, when the only danger they faced was one of Uncle Luke’s scowls for arriving home late. Ben touches his cheek, rubbing it, certain that he feels Poe’s hand on his skin.

And as unconsciousness takes him, Poe is still, and forever, at the centre of his thoughts. No amount of pain or darkness will ever separate them. Not even death will stop him from being with Poe, with his love: his grandfather taught him that.

But little does Ben know that he’s being transported to Snoke’s ship because it’s the Destroyer with the highest amount of security, the one least likely to be attacked and boarded. Poe Dameron, _Black Leader,_ and his squadron of rebels have taken down two small star destroyers in the last three months in the galaxy-wide search for Ben. They’re getting closer.

The Supreme Leader is afraid of them, Poe is certain. He can still hear Ben’s screams inside his head as he was hit with an electric baton before being caught in an energized net, one that completely disabled his powers and forced him into unconsciousness. The attack on the temple was terrible; Poe and Ben had thought it to be a malicious assault on the Jedi, perhaps someone with a vendetta against Luke, but when the Stormtroopers and mercenaries had begun to target Ben, focussing on weakening him before subduing him with the electric net as though he was some sort of animal, Poe had realised all too late that someone was after Ben.

Presently, in the silence of his cockpit in the Resistance hangar bay, Poe idly touches the controls, staring at a photograph of Ben that he keeps with him at all times, either inside of his X-Wing cockpit or on the inside pocket of his flight suit. He wonders how much Ben will have changed in four years. Will the First Order have forced him to cut his hair? Has he grown into his wide frame? Or has he grown thinner with the neglect? In Poe’s dreams, he and Ben are still teenagers, spending hours down by the creek, stealing time away from Ben’s Jedi studies to climb trees and swap stories, play games, talk about their future.

‘ _We’ll be the best team that the galaxy has ever seen,’_ Poe had promised, sat high up in a tree with Ben, their legs dangling down, not a care in the galaxy to bother them. _‘No one will be able to stop us. I’ll always have your back.’_

Poe punches the control panel in anger, feeling more useless than ever. He’s so close that he can almost feel Ben beside him, inside of his mind— _wait._ For a fleeting moment, Poe feels the familiar brush of Ben’s mind against his own, like a weight inside of his head that makes him feel certain of himself, confident and strong. He sits up, staring at Ben’s photo, swearing that he sees him _blink._

“Ben? Ben, is that you?” Poe jerks forward in his seat, taking hold of the photo. “I’m here, shit, I’m right here—”

But he gets no reply and, soon enough, the feeling is gone in another second, leaving him alone and empty again. _So_ empty.

He won’t stop until he and Ben are at that creek again, resting on that blanket in each other’s company until the sun sets and they go home _together._ He’s so close, he can feel it, sense it.

Ben is with him.

**Author's Note:**

> I desperately need more Ben/Poe in my life so I decided to write some. After asking for prompts on my tumblr, an anon prompted me to write this so thank you to them for the inspiration!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! 
> 
> My tumblr is [@solohux](http://solohux.tumblr.com/)❤️
> 
> And I'm also on twitter now! Find me [@solohuxx](https://mobile.twitter.com/solohuxx) 💙


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